There is not any greater or more dreadful sign of the wrath of GOD, than when he abandons a sinner to his lusts, and permits him to find means of satisfying them.

The public good is the sole end of Church discipline. The interest of the governors of the Church is no way concerned in it; but only the advantage of their flock, that sinners may be converted; that contagion may be hindered from spreading; that every one may be kept to his duty, and in obedience to the laws of God; that judgments may be averted from the public, and that God in all things may be glorified; that differences among neighbours may be made up, and charity improved, &c.

Discipline (saith our Homily of the right use of the Church, Part II.) in the primitive Church was practised, not only upon mean persons, but upon the rich, the noble, and the mighty; and such as St. Paul saith, were even given to Satan for a time.

Those that make a mock, a sport, a jest of sin, too plainly betray a love of wickedness in themselves.

66

Exemption.

A legal exemption cannot free a man from guilt, beyond the extent of that power which grants the exemption. If it be a human power, it can extend no farther than to exempt a man from human penalties, not from those that are purely spiritual. Eccles. viii. 5. Reproach not a man that turneth from sin." They whom fear renders cowardly in the exercise of their ministry, forget that they act in the name and place of CHRIST, and are to account to him for the mischief the Church receives thereby.

Deut. i. 17. "Ye shall not be afraid of the face of men, for the judgment is GOD's."

O righteous Judge of the world, give me and my substitutes grace, patiently to hear, and impartially to weigh, every cause that shall come before us in judgment.

Give us a spirit to discern, and courage to execute, true judgment, that all our sentences may be approved by thee, our LORD and Judge. Amen.

Deut. xxiv. 17. "Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless."

Isaiah i. 23.

Every one loveth gifts; they judge not the fatherless;" that is, they are poor, and cannot bribe them. Exod. xxiii. 2, 3. "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to decline after many, to wrest judgment: neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause."

Deut. xix. 15.

"Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour."

The judgment of the multitude is no rule of justice. "Then cried they all, Not this man, but Barabbas."

John xix. 12. "If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend;-when Pilate heard that saying," then he resolved to sacrifice his conscience, rather than lose his prince's favour.

2 Chron. xix. 6. "And he said to the judges, Take heed what ye do for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment."

:

Prov. xvii. 13. "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination unto the LORD."

John xix. 11. "" Except it were given thee from above." Although the magistrate's authority is from GOD, yet he is answerable to GOD for the due execution of it.

Prov. xxi. 3. "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable unto the LORD than sacrifice."

Isaiah i. 11. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD; I am full of the burntofferings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats."

Hosea vi. 6. "For I desired mercy and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings."

Micah vi. 7, 8. "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

The Jews had a rule, that if a rich man and a poor man had

a controversy, they must both of them stand or sit, to avoid partiality.

Virtue would hardly be distinguished from a kind of sensuality, if there were no labour-no opposition-no difficulty in doing our duty. Dulce est periculum sequi Deum.

The duty of a judge may oblige him to punish according to the law; but it is the part of a Christian injured to forgive according to the charity of the Gospel.

A judge is not the master but the minister of the law-for the public good, not for his own interest, passion, or will.

A good judge will never desire to make himself feared by his power; but will rather be afraid of abusing it.

The civil magistrate is liable to be excluded from Church communion for such reasons as the spiritual governors shall judge necessary; they are to determine for him, and not he for them, in matters merely spiritual.

Give me, O LORD, the spirit of judgment, (Isaiah xxviii. 6.) that I may govern this Church with wisdom.

Eccles. iv. 9. "Be not faint-hearted when thou sittest in judgment."

A lover of the law will always have an eye to the intent of the law. Matt. xii. 3.

OXFORD,

The Feast of St. Philip and St. James.

[FOURTH EDITION.]

These Tracts are continued in Numbers, and sold at the price of 2d. for each sheet, or 7s. for 50 copies.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.

1841.

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

THE ANTIQUITY OF THE EXISTING LITURGIES.

ALL Liturgies now existing, except those in use in Protestant countries, profess to be derived from very remote antiquity. So likely is it, however, that in the lapse of ages, considering the extreme ignorance in which many parts of Christendom have been immersed, interpolations almost to any extent should have crept into the formulæ of the different Churches, that little weight seems at first sight due to them as traditionary depositories of ancient doctrine. Judging from the opinions and character of those to whose custody they have been committed, one would be disposed to treat them rather as accumulations of every kind of superstition, than relics of ancient evangelical simplicity, to examine them rather as exhibitions of the gradual decay of Christianity, than as monuments of what it was.

Unlikely, however, as it might appear beforehand, learned men who have undertaken the laborious task of examining them, have been led to form a different estimate of their value. Certain, indeed, it is, that they have been much interpolated, and in parts, corrupted; but it seems to be admitted at last, after long and patient research, that much likewise has been handed down from the first uninterpolated, and that means exist for ascertaining what parts are interpolated, and what pure and genuine.

VOL. II.-63.

A

Among many remarkable facts which have been brought to light respecting the antiquity of existing Liturgies, the following among the most striking :—

is

There exists at the present day, scattered through Judæa, Mesopotamia, Syria, and the southern part of Asia Minor, which formerly made up the Patriarchate of Antioch, a set of heretical Christians, called Jacobites or Monophysites, who were anathematized 1383 years since, at the council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451. This ancient sect has from that time to this persisted in its separation from the orthodox Church, and no communion has subsisted between the two each regarding the other as heretical. For a long time each preserved their separate establishments in the different Churches and dioceses, and each their own patriarch in the metropolitan city. By degrees, however, the Orthodox became the inferior party, and, on the Mahometan invasion, finding themselves no longer able to maintain an independent existence, fell back on the support of the patriarch of Constantinople, whose dependents they acknowledge themselves at the present day. The Monophysites, on the contrary, were patronized by the invaders, and having been thus enabled to support their ancient establishment, remain in undisturbed possession of their sees, and represent the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch. Now these Monophysites use at this day a Liturgy in the Syriac language, which they ascribe to the Apostle St. James; and the remarkable fact about this Liturgy is, that a great part of it coincides with a Greek Liturgy used once a year by the orthodox Church at Jerusalem, expression for expression. So that one must evidently be a translation of the other.

A coincidence of this kind between the most solemn religious rites of two Churches, which have for 1383 years avoided all communion with each other, of course proves the parts which coincide to be more than 1383 years old.

Another remarkable fact, not indeed so striking as this, but perhaps as essentially valuable, is exhibited to us in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The history of the Monophysites and Orthodox in that country, is much the same as in the Patriarchate of Antioch; except, indeed, that the depression of the Orthodox